WORLD BRIEFING / SPAIN

Officials say captured man is ETA's leader

A man arrested this week on suspicion of being chief of commando units for ETA is actually the Basque separatist group's top leader, Spanish officials said.

Police said they were preparing for retaliation from ETA over the arrest of 35-year-old Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, whose alias is Txeroki, or Cherokee in Basque.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said in an interview with Cadena Ser radio that Aspiazu was ETA's top leader, in charge of overall strategy. He did not say how or when authorities had discovered that he held that role.